Malibu’s Abbott emerges as a legitimate scoring threat

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First-year boys’ basketball Coach Jack Pollon took the job at Malibu over the summer knowing full well he had two players, seniors Ryan Walczuk and Chris Peck, capable of scoring 15-plus points per game. However, the rookie skipper had no idea the Sharks had a third scorer waiting in the wings, or in this case, circling the hoop.

Chandler Abbott has been a pleasant surprise, averaging 15.4 points a night. And very few teams have stopped the sophomore wing lately. In the last three games, he scored 24 points against St. Genevieve, dropped 29 on Sherman Oaks CES, followed by a 26-point effort against West Adams Prep. Now that’s production.

‘I don’t know where Chandler came from, but I’d like to find out so I can go to wherever it was and find a couple of players just like him,’’ Pollon said. ‘Honestly, all kidding aside, he’s stepped up for us. He’s taken the pressure off some of the other guys. I like the direction we’re heading.’’

The Sharks opened the season with victories in six of their first seven games, a confidence boost that will, no doubt, be a factor when they open Frontier League play Friday against Fillmore. With Abbott playing well, providing firepower along with Walczuk and Peck, don’t be surprised if Malibu makes a run over the next month, perhaps into the playoffs.

-- Sean Ceglinsky